You Betta Believe It!

The bug things definitely have legs - I can see them when they are crawling across the leaves, swimming, or walking over and into the gravel. That would eliminate limpets as a suspect, no?

I tried getting a clear close-up of one today; they are smaller than baby shrimps, and most have a striped or marbled pattern like in the pic. They mostly congregate in the gravel although I see them all over my tank nowadays. What does anyone else think?

Hi! I am all for kiddos experiencing the joys of fishkeeping, but there are a few things I would keep in mind before keeping a betta and shrimp together (specifically Neocaridina davidi, or red cherry shrimp, which are the only ones I have experience with):

Bettas are aggressive! When I introduced the shrimp to my betta’s tank, I was lucky that he only seemed interested in chasing the adults in brief spurts, and I never saw him kill or eat an adult. He does eat the baby shrimps, but ultimately it’s good population control, and the babies are so small the children honestly won’t even notice them. However, I’ve seen other blogs post about their bettas that are much more aggressive than mine, who can’t keep shrimp at all as the betta will pick them off one by one. I can imagine that might be something you don’t want a kindergartener to see, but could also be a good lesson about life? 😅 You could maybe look at getting a larger species of shrimp than the Neos (amano or ghost shrimp?), if you don’t want to risk this!

The tank habitat matters! Cherry shrimp thrive in aquariums with a lot of biomatter for them to pick at, meaning a lot of live plants, biofilm/algae, and leaf litter. Lots of plants also means lots of hiding places for them to escape their predatory tank-mate (the betta!) and gives them a safe space to molt.

Shrimp are opportunistic feeders! This is something I was not so happy to learn, hah...shrimp will scavenge the bodies of anything freshly dead in the tank, including other shrimp, and yes, probably the betta too. They truly spend 99% of their time eating. It’s a good way for them to get nutrients, but not a fun thing for a child (or me!) to see.

The positives are that shrimp are delightful to have and easy to care for! Kids will love watching them and playing a role in their care. I don’t have to feed my shrimp that often, only supplementing their diet a few times a week (with shrimp food or blanched veggies), which makes them ideal for a classroom tank that’s left alone over the weekends. Bettas require a bit more maintenance and should be fed daily (although I recommend one day off a week as a “fasting day”), so if you plan on being away from the classroom for more than a few days you will need an automatic feeder or someone to care for it. If you want to keep a betta and shrimp together, I recommend nothing smaller than 10gal!